NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — The Long Island Rail Road has stepped up its crackdown on fare beaters, which includes strict new measures that some riders are unhappy about.
Getting a free ride on the LIRR used to be a lot easier. Some passengers hide from the conductor by changing seats or making a beeline for the restroom and waiting for the conductor to walk past. If the conductor doesn’t check your ticket, you could save it for the next time. But those days, apparently, are over.
Under the MTA’s new policy, unused tickets expire in a matter of hours, and tickets purchased on the app must be activated even before the train leaves the station. If you activate them later, the MTA will slap you with an $8 penalty.
“They charged me $8 for being late. That’s not-I can’t see how that’s fair,” said one LIRR rider. “$8? Even a dollar-it’s ridiculous.”
“It’s a shame, you know, for people that just might have forgotten to have gotten it before getting on,” said another LIRR rider.
Longtime commuters like Claudia Beck know that unused tickets used to be good for 60 days, but not anymore.
“I honestly have taken the railroad for many, many years, and there are often times that they don’t even look at your ticket,” Beck said. “If I don’t take this train, it expires in an hour. So, if I miss this train, I would have to buy another ticket, which I think is really unfair for the rider.”
The MTA is struggling to control fare evasion across the transit system. In 2024, the agency lost an estimated $46 million in unpaid tickets on the commuter lines, alone.
Enforcement has been stepped up. As for the “restroom riders,” the MTA chairman spoke out about that last week.
“The conductors are increasingly aware of it and pay attention to that, and our passengers, also,” said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber. “I’ve been on the railroad a couple of times where there are people who are, like, monopolizing the bathroom for that purpose.”
“Restroom riders” are a chronic problem, and the MTA’s new policy is not likely to change that.
Enforcement is tricky, and fares are going up. It may be that fewer commuters seem to feel guilty about it.
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